What the heck is JaguarDrive and should we fear it like iDrive? At this point no, as it appears to be nothing more than a fancy shifter for the automatic transmission. The setup first appeared in the C-XF concept car shown in Detroit earlier this year. Our second sighting came just a few weeks ago when we got our first spy photos of the production XF sedan's interior. The flat panel controller was hidden under the driver's hand, so at the time we couldn't be certain what was going on. Now our latest spy photos show an XKR prototype with what looks to be a similar setup. The transmission console isn't visible, but without the traditional J-gate shifter sticking up it's likely that the XKR is also getting the new transmission controller. Until we see how it works first hand we'll reserve judgment about its usefulness, but so far we like the way it's shaping up.
Here's how the setup looked in the C-XF concept sedan.
sabastian says:
06:57 PM, 05/29/07
And I thought I was the only one who noticed the gear lever's absence from the old photos. So do you turn the disk to change gear? What would the advantage of this system be?
ateixeira says:
11:54 AM, 05/30/07
I guess it takes up less space.
I don't see why people keep trying to re-invent the shifter knob, though.